Nearly 1,000 killed in Iraq in October: Official data

Official figures show that more than 960 people were killed and hundreds of others wounded due to a surge in terrorist attacks across Iraq in October, making it the country’s bloodiest month since 2008.

Fresh data released by Iraq’s ministries of health, interior and defense showed on Friday that violence in the Arab country killed 964 people – 855 civilians, 65 policemen and 44 soldiers – and injured 1,600 others in October.

The October death toll was the highest since April 2008, when 1,073 people were killed in terrorist assaults in the violence-stricken country, according to government figures.

This is while the United Nations figures suggest that July has been the bloodiest month in the country since 2008, with a total of 1,057 Iraqis, including 928 civilians, killed and another 2,326 wounded in terrorist attacks.

On Thursday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called for a global effort to battle the “virus” of al-Qaeda and similar terrorist groups.

“If we have had two world wars, we want a third world war against those who are killing people, killing populations, who are calling for bloodshed, for ignorance and do not want logic to govern our daily lives,” said Maliki.

The Iraqi prime minister dismissed the idea that Iraq is grappling with sectarian violence, stressing that all, including Shia and Sunni Muslims as well as the Kurds, “are targeted.”

According to the United Nations, carnage led to the death of some 5,000 people in Iraq between January and September of 2013.

A study released this month by academics based in the United States, Canada and Iraq said nearly half a million people have died due to war-related incidents in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.